Restaurants and hotels in Greenland are undermining an international ban on
commercial whaling by serving whale meat to tourists, campaigners have
claimed.

The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) said an undercover investigation had found that tourist businesses were targeting visitors to the country with menus that included bowhead and other whale meat.

The International Whaling Commission permits the killing of a limited number of whales each year, but only to meet the needs of local aboriginal people. But WDCS said it had documented a number of restaurants and hotels – as well as supermarkets – openly selling whale meat to tourists.

The investigation comes ahead of the commission’s annual meeting in Panama next month, where Denmark is expected to demand that Greenland can catch more whales to meet the demand of its indigenous people. WDCS said the investigation showed it was already catching more than required.

“The Danish government's claims that Greenland needs to kill more whales for nutritional and cultural needs is laughable,” said Chris Butler-Stroud, WDCS’s chief executive. “Who is this meat really for? Our investigation report shows that this demand for more whale meat is clearly driven by the commercial consumer market, not by aboriginal needs.”

The research by WDCS and the Animal Welfare Institute found that 24 out of 31 restaurants visited, contacted or researched online offered whale meat to tourists.

Related Articles

Meals available to tourists included whale burgers, buffets with whale meat for cruise ship passengers, whale pasta and Thai and sushi dishes containing whale meat. It said a significant proportion of the estimated 200,000 meals served to tourists in the country each year contained whale meat.

WDCS also warned that any tourists caught bringing whale meat bought in supermarkets in Greenland into the European Union or the United States could face arrest and prosecution.